Normally, I would consider myself a pretty patient person, but this was seriously put to the test when I arrived at LAX, rushed to get my bags and find the right terminal to check in for my flight to Sydney, and upon arriving was welcomed by a line of literally hundreds of people waiting at the V Australia counter. Looking at my watch, I realize I’ve got about an hour and a half to get through this line, security, and to the gate, “Well, this isn’t going to happen…” I’ve never been more right in my life. I weave my way through the masses to the end of the line, which has wound around about 3 times after the normal queue was supposed to end. Fortunately, I was standing by 3 other students who were also stuck for the night and who were all going to study in various locales in Australia, so we had a good 3 hour bonding session in LAX and then the next morning at 4:30 when the shuttle picked us up from the hotel for another couple of hours of waiting in the airport. Being some of the last people in line, the hotels that the airline normally used ran out of rooms, so that was a rather worrisome 20 minutes while they searched for somewhere to put the remaining 19 of us around 10:30 at night. Of course by the time we finally were put up in a Holiday Inn the restaurant and room service were both closed, but I was so tired that I didn’t even want dinner. There was a rather disappointing boxed breakfast in the morning, but then some good karma paid off once we finally boarded the plane! I ended up getting a seat with extra leg room (no one in front of me) for the 14 ½ hour flight to Sydney and it was really nice to be able to stretch out! There were also a lot of good movies and TV shows playing for free, so I was able to get caught up on some new movies and shows, which, in addition to Sudoku, books, and crosswords, kept me pretty well entertained. I was also lucky that I didn’t have any firm travel plans like a lot of people, some of whom were missing cruises or tours by getting to Sydney or New Zealand later than planned. Understandably, there were a lot of not so happy people on that plane…the poor flight attendants had to listen to a lot of complaints L
Upon arrival in Sydney, most people had missed their connecting flights, including me, so I ended up being put on a flight into Christchurch, which is on the South Island, near Dunedin, for that night, where I would stay and then fly up to Auckland, on the North Island, in the morning. This seemed like a bit of a round-a-bout plan to me…but at least they were getting me there! However, in keeping with the theme of delays, the flight out of Sydney was delayed as well, so by the time I got to Christchurch it was about 1:30 in the morning New Zealand time (by this point I’d stopped trying to keep track of time zones, I just knew that I was tiiiired!) and the flight to Auckland was scheduled to leave at 6:40am…giving me about 2 hours to sleep in the hotel before heading back to the airport. Benefit of being put up for free, however, is that we actually got a meal voucher this time so I got to have room service breakfast for free! Coffee was definitely needed by then, and I was well supplied with a whole little pot J There was a minor fiasco with baggage check at the airport since we had to change airlines and the one we switched to had different weight limits, which led to me attempting to reorganize my suitcases on the floor by the counter at 5 in the morning…not a happy camper. But they finally let me through and supposedly I will be reimbursed for the fees they made me pay if I maneuver my way through enough customer service websites, we shall see.
The good thing about flying out so early was that I got into Auckland around 8am and was able to find the right bus which took me basically to the door of my hostel, very convenient! I spent most of the day exploring Auckland, loosely following a walking tour and stumbling upon a path which took me to the Auckland Museum, which was free (perfect!) and surprisingly interesting! There were a ton of cool Maori (native culture) exhibits and a really amazing house which was made of carved figures of Maori gods and must have taken an extraordinary amount of time to build. I was also able to wander around the University of Auckland a bit, and it was fun to go into their library and a couple other buildings to see the differences of a big university. The campus was beautiful, with a mix of old and new architecture and a nice big park right across the street.
After some more wanderings (aka getting lost) and checking out the harbor and finding a gelato stand (yay!) I headed back to the hostel move my luggage into my room, which was quite small but had a bed and sheets and was not an airport, which was all I really wanted. While checking email in the lounge I met a couple people from Canada and the US so we all went out to dinner and found an international food court which was the least expensive thing that was not McDonald’s or Burger King. There are also a surprising number of Subway’s around, which I was not expecting to see here. Food is a bit more expensive here than at home, but it will be nice to get to the flat and be able to buy groceries instead of single meals all of the time. After dinner we all went down and hung out at the bar that’s affiliated with the hostel, where I met a guy who is originally from Canada but works in Queenstown with the bungy company that I am planning on going to, so it will be fun to know someone when Amanda and I go when she visits! Once I started falling asleep on my feet I realized that it was probably time for bed and so called it a night after a great, but exhausting, day of exploring a beautiful city and making new friends J
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